Absentee Ballots Not The Only Option For NYU Students
This story was written by Cassandra Arsenault and Todd Sloves, Washington Square News
In the college world, the general consensus is that it's complicated to vote in New York City. With the Super Tuesday primary tomorrow, many NYU students have been mailing their absentee ballots to their home states. Yet few seem to know that moving your vote to the Big Apple is easier than one might imagine.
According to the New York City Board of Elections, if you're a college student with a dorm address, all you need to register to vote in the state of New York is a social security number. Registration forms can be downloaded from the Board of Elections' website, and students can use their dorm addresses as a residence. If they are already registered elsewhere, that registration will automatically be cancelled.
Despite the convenience of switching registration from one state to another, many students choose not to because they've heard that it is too complicated.
Lindsey Yellin, an out-of-state Tisch sophomore, said she's not even going to vote because "the [absentee] process is too complicated." She said the last time she tried to vote by absentee ballot, the forms took far too long to arrive and she was unable to cast her vote in time.
"It has been difficult for students to prove they reside here during the school year," Yellin said, citing stories about students' ID's being rejected.
Yet the ease of voting in New York has done wonders for Stephanie Bejar, a Steinhardt senior from Puerto Rico who couldn't vote at all before she moved to the city. Because Puerto Rico is a commonwealth and not an official state, she could never vote in American elections.
When Bejar moved to New York City four years ago, she registered to vote with ease.
"It's really simple," she said. "I went online and filled out a few simple forms and it was done within seconds."
Other students choose to vote at home for political reasons. Living in a swing state, for example, may factor into whether or not they vote where they live or where they grew up.
Sarah Hu, a Stern senior from New Jersey, is a voting strategist.
"I feel my vote will count more in Jersey," she said. "New York is so overwhelmingly Democratic."
Steinhardt junior Monica Dang, from Connecticut, would rather vote in the comfort of her hometown.
"It's better that way. I know where my vote's going and that it will count," she said.
Even for NYU students from swing states, like Ariella Rojhani, a CAS senior from Colorado, the convenience of voting in New York trumps anything else.
"I didn't know that I could vote in New York before, but now that I know that's an option I would definitely consider it," Rojhani said. "It would be more convenient for me to vote in New York."
"I've kind of accepted the fact that if I register in New York my vote won't matter as much per se," she said. "I know my vote would count more if I kept it in Colorado because it's a swing state, but right now my life is arranged in such a way that it would be much more convenient for me to vote here in New York."
© 2008 Washington Square News via U-WIRE